I was compensated to share my thoughts and feelings about Henry Ford Health System but all thoughts expressed are my own.
My grandmother turned 90 in July. For her 90th birthday present all of the grandkids put together a video of our favorite memories with Grandma. The memories ranged from special trips for ice cream to discovering salad tongs under her pillow that she kept there in case she needed to fend off potential burglars.
I shared a moment that stuck with me from my childhood, something that embodied my grandmother to me. When I was nine or ten my grandma came on vacation with us as she often did and she asked if I wanted to join her on her daily walk. Full of nine year-old energy, I agreed and put on my tennis shoes that were probably pink high tops that no one with feet nearly as long as their legs should have been wearing.
My grandma took off at a speed that could rival most champion speed walkers. Are there speed-walking championships? If there are my grandma should have totally entered thirty years ago. What I thought was going to be a stroll through the woods with my grandma was a walk-run that ended with me trailing a sixty-something-year-old woman and declining all of her walk invitations for the rest of our vacation. I might have been willing to swim until my skin shriveled up and race around on my banana seat bike but I guess being shown up by Grandma in the forest wasn’t my kind of exercise.
For as long as I can remember my grandma has kept busy and eaten healthy. Her daily walks continued until she needed to move on to chair aerobics and she’s still know to forgo salad dressing if she can’t find anything low-cal enough. For the record, when I’m 90 I’m switching to full calorie ranch.
When I picture myself as a grandmother I see myself snuggling grandkids and baking them all the things but I also hope to affectionately leave them in the dust too. I hope they watch me do things in my senior years and wonder what was in my morning juice just as we’ve all done with my grandmother. She has ridden four-wheelers and hung onto a speeding tube tied to the back of a boat and never said no to an opportunity to keep moving, no matter her age.
The last year or two my own age is starting to sink in. I’ve always been on the thin side so had never felt pressure to exercise but my energy level was slowly decreasing and my moods weren’t that fabulous either. I started thinking about my fabulous grandma and her speed-walking, up-for-anything ways. I hadn’t even hit forty yet and the couch already sounded better than any form of physical activity.
I’ve never been very athletic so there were way more workouts out there that didn’t appeal to me than did. I spent some time searching for a physical fitness routine I actually liked, knowing that was the only way I’d stick to it. I ultimately settled on yoga and once I was feeling good about my fitness level had the confidence I needed to try new workouts like pilates, barre and running… I even started running!
My grandma and her never-ending spirit and energy will always be my inspiration to keep moving. She’s 90 now and as expected with her age, not in the perfect health she once was. She recently had a pacemaker put in and is under the amazing care of The Henry Ford Health System Heart and Vascular Institute. We couldn’t be happier with their individualized care and dedication to helping her maintain her lifestyle. Through their treatment of my grandma, we understand why people come from all over the world for the expertise found at The Henry Ford Heart & Vascular Institute. They believe the best medicine begins with the individual and that heart and vascular care should be one of a kind, not one size fits all.
Her cardiologist, Dr. Celeste Williams values her need to feel like she’s 90 going on 25 and has worked diligently with her on finding medication with minimal side effects so she can keep moving. Grandma receives personalized care from Dr. Williams and is loved and cared for the minute she walks through those medical office doors.
Seeing my grandma live life to the fullest is all the motivation I need to work on keeping my heart healthy as I age. I want to be her when I grow up. She passed me by with flying colors when I was a child and taught me the valuable lesson of how to speed walk through life without missing a thing.
Preventive care is so important to maintain optimal health. Henry Ford offers an easy, interactive, online tool to assess your heart health called the Heart Health Risk Assessment. It takes less than five minutes to complete and is a great way to learn which areas of your own health you should target. A great next step would be to set your yearly exam and look into the $99 heart screening offered by Henry Ford.
This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Henry Ford Health System
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